Final Chorus Breakdown

Now we are into the last chorus, and this really drives the tune home. So I hope you've got enough energy by this point in the song because it is another really tough tune, especially on the right hand.

Driving Figure

We've got this driving figure, which is really cool. I like the way it resolves down to the ninth. He doesn't go back to the tonic, there's something really kind of hip about it. It's like pivoting around the 9th rather than the tonic.

Once again, it's slightly unexpected and may harken back to his jazz background as well. The stuff he plays here is all very spontaneous. Another day, he would have played that differently; maybe he would have used a similar idea but just emphasized different beats or changed where he played between those two harmonies.

Experimenting with Ideas

Let's just have a little play around with that idea. I'll play around a 12-bar progression, maybe changing it at different points and accenting different beats.

• Counts:
  • One, two, three.
  • You can do whatever you want with that idea. It's a cool one!

Remember: At this point in the song, it's really about driving this song home. Ramp up the energy with whatever you can muster inside!

The Riff and Ending

There's that riff again that we heard right at the start of the song. Then there's the little arpeggio at the end.

This is a really cool ending. I'm surprised we haven't heard that yet in the song, because that's a very Pete Johnson thing to do. He uses similar phrases on Roland Pete, for example, on the G chords.

It's just a nicely crafted phrase that announces the end of the song, culminating in a warm ninth chord. He goes up with that kind of voicing.

• Note: You don't have to do exactly that; you could add whatever flourish you want there, or none at all!

Highlighting Chords

You might want to play that part all with one hand, something like that. It's almost highlighting either an A flat, a flat 7 sort of chord, or even a 2-5-1 like A.

Conclusion

And there we have it, Dive Bomber by Pete Johnson! A great tune. It is a killer!

Well done for getting this far, and I hope there are loads of ideas in it that you can take away to use in your own improvisations.